The Whitney

MLK Weekend we took advantage of three consecutive days off to tackle some of the items left on our NYC list of things we still need to do.

Since it was cold outside we decided that an indoor activity wouldn't be a bad idea so we decided to check out The Whitney Museum. Mind you we had tried to go to The Whitney on January 2nd and the line was around the corner (we also tried to go to The Guggenheim on January 2nd and that line was around the corner. Apparently January 2nd is museum day in NYC - note to self for next year!)

We got there right as it was opening. The permanent collection at The Whitney was Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney personal collection of 20th Century American artists and offered it to The MET who didn't want them. She then decided to found her own museum to house her collection.

The top two floors house the permanent collection. There are some beautiful beautiful Ed Hoppers in the collection and overall I enjoyed seeing it. We worked our way downstairs to the Alexander Calder exhibit. Calder is a sculptor who specializes in the use of wire. The whole floor was filled with really cool wire sculptures. My favorite was The Circus (which is part of the permanent collection)! He made an entire circus out of wire & metal and it's on display at the museum. In addition, you can watch this clip of him performing The Circus - it was so funny. It was neat to be standing among all of these people, young, old, New Yorkers and tourists all laughing and smiling as we watched this video. If you'd like to watch the video click here. And enjoy! It was my favorite part of the museum.

The thing I love about some of the smaller museums in New York is that you can have this great experience, see beautiful art, and do it all in 2 hours or less. I love The MET but sometimes it can be overwhelming. We were also fortunate that the visiting exhibits were cool to see.

I would recommend The Whitney - Jon and I really enjoyed our visit.